I haven’t written on this blog for a few months, so here is a little update on what I’ve been up to lately.
I’ve been taking a break from writing to work on some theater projects. I took a workshop in shadow puppets, something I’ve been interested in for a long time, and developed a short performance based on one of my original fables. It was a great experience to take one of my stories and present it in a totally different way, and I hope to do more such projects in the future.
Here is a photo of my shadow puppet show:
* * *
I also painted an illustrated scroll for a theater piece called The Great Red Ball Rescue by the multi-talented Faye Dupras. It’s the story of a boy who goes on an amazing journey to rescue his beloved red ball. The production uses multiple styles of puppetry and also utilizes a “crankie” or panoramic scroll to tell one part of the story, where the boy Jasper goes to the beach.
The scene is not very long, but requires a scroll nearly 30 feet long and 26 inches high. I started with small storyboards, based on the puppet characters that Faye created, then drew the final illustrations on a large scroll of drawing paper, and painted it with watercolors.
Here are a few pictures of the drawings in process, and one of how it appeared in the final puppet stage. The scroll was wound around two wooden dowels, and turned with a crank.
The show premiered at Puppet Showplace Theatre in January, and was a great success. It was fun to illustrate a story for such a unique production, and I was glad to be a part of it.
Looking forward to the coming year, I plan to do more writing, though I’m not sure which of my back-burner projects to tackle yet. I also plan to explore interactive storytelling, something I’ve experimented with over the years. I’m also working on an animated film, which I’ll write about later. And if you haven’t seen my webcomic in a while, I’ve been adding a new page each week.
That’s all the news for now!
* * *